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Alisandra
Alisandra (アリシアノルス, Arishianorusu) is a supporting character and Kingmaker in Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. Appearance and Personality Alisandra's true form manifests as a very large, winged, three-horned Kirin. While her wings, tail, and teeth are very dragon-like, the rest of her body is highly deer- or giraffe-like in nature. Paralleling other kingmakers, she possesses a rib of bony spines running from the dock of her tail to its end. Unique to her, Alisandra's wings, back, and croup are decorated with motifs that evoke the sun and daylight, similar to themes in other Allegorian designs. A translucent, crystalline statue of her, likely true to size, can be seen wrapping around the entirety of Doloran's palace in the Lost City and in Alisandra's memory of Allegoria. Her color scheme, like Doloran and Allegoria in general, is strongly white and gold. Her magic appears to take on a light blue or gold hue. Alisandra is capable of shapeshifting. As a result, the game also shows her in an alternate form as a white-haired, blue-skinned humanoid. Her eyes in this form are notably similar to her true form's, possessing blue irises and vertical slit pupils. The game depicts her wearing a white cape and long white dress, adorned with epaulettes that mimic the decorations and overall appearance of her true form's wings. Alisandra's personality appears to be very calm, empathetic, eloquent, and poised, even in the face of deep adversity. She has a particularly strong sense of individual responsibility, especially when it regards her duties and her own power. She also respects lawfulness and morality and tends highly towards self-sacrifice for the sake of others. She refuses to solve problems by intentionally imposing harms on her charges or by compromising her loved ones. Accordingly her character appears to have been respected by her Allegorian subjects, who find her to be incorruptible in some measure. When she speaks, she is direct and to-the-point, preferring herself and others not to mince words or waste time. In the timeframe of the Ni no Kuni 2, she has experienced many years of reflecting on her mistakes, and as a result is filled with regret, guilt, and sadness over what she has lost, what pain she has caused, and what she worries she will never regain. However, she gains a renewed sense of hopefulness via the actions of Evan, Roland, and their companions, and by the end of the game, is completely at peace with herself and her place in the world. Magic and Capabilities Although the exact extent of her powers is unknown, her magical capabilities have been described in Tale of the Timeless Tome as "godlike" and "beyond measure". This power was apparently enough to inspire significant fear in Allegoria's contemporary peers and rivals, who also presumably had their own powerful kingmakers. She has demonstrated or implied an array of abilities, including divination, clairvoyance, restoration, a profound capacity for the manipulation of space and matter, as well as free interdimensional movement via the Gateway spell: something normally considered ancient magic that is very difficult for magic-wielders in Ni no Kuni 2. In addition, she possesses abilities relevant to manipulating the soul (particularly her own), and, when at full strength, possibly immense destructive capabilities similar to those of the Horned One. As a testament to the scale of her abilities, even after being separated from the main source of her power, she nevertheless managed to banish an entire continent to an alternate dimension. As another example, she was able to very quickly divine the location of Roland in a completely new, unknown dimension and teleport him away from danger, across the boundaries between worlds. In addition, she effortlessly removed a permanent curse levied on Doloran by his use of forbidden magic; she did this with a single kiss. Like all Kingmakers, she associates with a Cradle; in Alisandra's case, this Cradle now lies in the space between spaces among the ruins of Allegoria. The actual structure, one of the few unbroken and untouched, can be seen in the background during the final combat with the Horned One, during the epilogue, and in the art which accompanies the credits. Role in Ni no Kuni II Alisandra was Kingmaker of New Allegoria from its founding through the end of the reign of Doloran. When Doloran acceded to the throne as a youth, Alisandra forged a Kingsbond with him, swearing their pact over a powerful sword named Mornstar. This same sword would become the holy cup which ultimately yielded the Sword of Unity. A book in Boddly's Goldpaw library notes that Alisandra routinely took human form and aided the new king personally in day-to-day affairs. At some point during Doloran's reign, Alisandra and Doloran's bond strengthened and became very close. Ultimately, it surpassed the usual relationship between King and Kingmaker and transformed into a mutual romantic love. The pair finally confessed their feelings for each other, on Doloran's initiative, in front of Alisandra's Cradle in Allegoria. Their subsequent relationship remained stable and very healthy for some indeterminate amount of time thereafter, with the couple sharing "long, happy days" and creating lasting memories, all the while simultaneously ruling Allegoria together. However, eventually Alisandra began to feel angst and conflict over her unusual connection to Doloran. To begin with, she had already served as Kingmaker to a number of kings and lived through many human lifetimes. She felt that one day, Doloran would inevitably die, and as an immortal creature, she would have to live an eternity without him. She either did not know that granting immortality was possible (as this is exactly what Doloran ultimately did to himself), or did not wish to consider the idea. Second, Alisandra felt dedicated to a notion of kingmakerly professionalism. She felt that a romance with her king compromised her function as guardian and guarantor of the realm. While another Kingmaker could be made to fill her role, such a thing would, in their time, require a soul sacrifice: something Alisandra was unwilling to entertain. She also could not bear the thought of another being other than herself commanding the powers over which she had control. She decided instead to try to spit herself in two. One part of her - the most powerful - would serve as Kingmaker, while the other would live alongside Doloran as an equal. Somehow, she was able to force herself to perform this extraordinary feat successfully. However, this success came at a great cost. Unbeknownst to Alisandra, like all other ancient Kingmakers, much of her power came from a great evil: an evil that was unleashed when she divorced herself from it. Free of the metaphysical shackles of Alisandra's soul, this evil, The Horned One, proceeded to annihilate Allegoria and terrorize the rest of the world. Eventually, utilizing the very sword they swore their bond over, Doloran and Alisandra worked together to vanquish The Horned One. However, Alisandra knew that this defeat was only temporary. Desperate and out of time, she used her power to cast Nazcaa and the Horned One into an alternate dimension along with herself; importantly, this occurred without Doloran's knowledge. Alisandra believed that this arrangement would be the only way of keeping the Horned One locked away forever. This sudden act left Doloran as one of the few survivors of the disaster that befell their kingdom. From within her dimension, Alisandra encased the Horned One in magic stone armor designed to keep most of its power at bay, which only the energy of all the kingsbonds of the world combined could break. Alisandra, now unable to completely destroy the Horned One, then resigned herself to an eternity of being a sort of prison guard, actively resisting any attempts by her prisoner to escape. She thus, by this act of self-sacrifice, managed to safeguard the rest of the world from The Horned One successfully for over two millennia, until the events of Ni no Kuni 2. Alisandra is, for the most part, strangely absent during the endgame, even when the space between worlds is broken into; Leander even comments as such. Further, she does nothing directly to stop Doloran from undoing her work across the entire plot. However, she is present (albeit unseen) inside the prison dimension during the final confrontation, and is arguably the source of the extra energy afforded to Lofty during that combat. It is implied that Alisandra had foreseen the destruction of the Horned One, and thus allowed events to transpire without her interference; this is referenced by the final conversation between her and Doloran, in which she holds him completely blameless for his actions during the plot. During Tale of the Timeless Tome, she further reinforces this notion by praying for Evan and his companions, calling them "the saviors, the chosen ones," (not only for herself and her predicament, but also Zayin) and by correctly predicting that they will "save my dear Doloran from himself" in the near future. Roland Crane's entry into the world of Ni no Kuni, and thus all of the events of the game that follow, are also as a consequence of Alisandra's actions. The violence of the nuclear strike on Roland's peace summit was so great that it managed to sunder boundaries between worlds, including those between Alisandra's prison and Roland's dimension. As a result, Alisandra was able to sense Roland's presence (via his cross-dimensional link to Doloran) and rescue him from certain death by teleportation. However, it seems that she was not fully able to control Roland's final destination. When encountered in Memory Lane, Alisandra calls the fact that Roland and Evan's paths crossed "nothing less than a miracle" and thanks both of them for their help. This conversation leaves Roland, Evan, and Lofty confused, as the events worthy of thanks (save for the restoration of Mornstar) had not yet occurred. These exchanges also imply that Alisandra had been able to figure out not only who both Roland and Evan were, but also what they had already accomplished, as well as what roles they would serve in the coming defeat of the Horned One. Following the defeat of the Nightmare King, Alisandra reveals that she believes she cannot change her mistakes or the past that haunts her, "not least because she no longer exists". Evan disagrees with this notion, but as he has only incomplete information, his disagreement may be incorrect. While Alisandra certainly no longer exists in the material world of Ni no Kuni, ''it is directly shown that she has a physical presence in the space between worlds, and she is capable of magically interacting with both Roland's and Evan's worlds. Fate With the final, complete destruction of the Horned One at the hands of King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Alisandra was released from the responsibility of containing the disaster she unleashed. After a short reunion, during which she restores Doloran's humanity and reassures him that they would be together again one day, Alisandra ultimately disappears. In so doing, she casts daylight across the prison dimension, removes the ruins of Allegoria that once occupied the space, and ignites a beacon of light atop her Cradle: the sole remaining structure. This penultimate act may suggest that she has returned to her Cradle to recuperate, paralleling the fate of Oakenhart, Longfang, and the other Kingmakers affected by the Horned One. However, her cradle still remains in the space between worlds, and she herself states that she will not see Doloran again in the world of ''Ni no Kuni, but rather "somewhere, someday". ''Alisandra's future is thus left hopeful, but somewhat uncertain. Her last act of the game is arguably sending Roland back to his own world, in much the same way she brought him into the world of ''Ni no Kuni. Trivia Alisandra's name in the English translation is seemingly a variant on the feminine name "Alessandra", derived from the Greek for "defender of man" or "defender of humanity". Her name in Japanese has no direct translation as a whole, but could be deconstructed as a play on words into Arishia no rusu (アリシアの留守), a reference to the fact that she has been absent in the world of Ni no Kuni for millennia. Arishi ''is also a homophone for 在りし, meaning "prior, past, old" or "before having died". Alisandra, in name, role, and magical talents, could have been meant to evoke parallelism with Alicia, another magic user of great power from ''Wrath of the White Witch. Category:Characters in Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Category:Females Category:Kingmakers Category:Allegorians